Crossed Love
by Writing Faber
Summary: Gumiya's a perfectly normal high school boy- well, except the small complication that he's a she. When she's assigned to work with Rin Kagamine on a science project, sparks fly- but does Rin know that the boy she's slowly developed a crush on is actually a girl? And when it comes down to it, will she care?


**_*Hello there and welcome to this fic. I co wrote this with Lizzy'-'Rocks and you should totally check her out (I'll put a link to her profile at the end). Anyways please enjoy! *_**

****_ -Faber_

As the students of class 1-A in Crypton Academy scrambled into their desks, Kiyoteru-sensei shushed the remaining stragglers and marked down the names of those who were tardy. Gumi Megpoid sat by the window with one elbow on her desk, staring out the window vacantly. Daydreams swam through her mind as her seatmate came and gently poked her arm.

"Hey! Gumiya, wake up!" she pleaded, "Please don't space out yet. The teacher is gonna get angrier than he already is if he catches you spacing out again." The class representative gave her another nudge.

"Hm?" Gumi snapped herself out of the fantasy she had plopped herself into and faced her classmate. "Geez, Miki, I'm paying attention now." Gumi replied with a slight pout and faced forward, her vacant stare now changing in the slightest. Kiyoteru sensei went on to explain the classes upcoming chemistry project.

"I'm going around to assign you all partners- and no, before you ask, you can't work in groups of three." he explained while tapping a laser pointer on the whiteboard. "you will be creating a unique presentation demonstrating the principle which I'll assign you later." He went off to explain the rubric and smaller details of the project, details which Gumi gladly tuned out until he began listing off names of who would be working with who.

"... Miki will be with Gakupo, Meiko will be with Kaito, Gumiya will be with Rin…" Gumi ignored the names that were called after hers, glancing over the heads of her classmates to see if she could spot the blonde girl she knew vaguely to be Rin Kagamine.

Interesting choice. Gumi thought to herself as she made her way to the desk across the room, casually leaning against it. She'd never spoken to Rin before- Gumi had seen her at a distance, and decided subconsciously that she was too frilly and girly to be worth giving any particular attention to.

"Um… Hey, you're Gumiya, right?" Gumi nodded. "Ah I see, weren't you new to the school this year?" Gumi nodded again. "Oh, well... that's cool" Rin looked nervously over to where her friends had all conveniently been assigned partners they already knew well.. "Well, I hope this project goes well"

"Yeah, me too" Gumi replied. Gumi was slightly shocked at her classmate's pleasantness. She had always envisioned the blonde as dimwitted and superficial like the cookie-cutter girls she spent her time with, but Rin was different, somehow. Gumi took a seat next to her new partner and adjusted her polo shirt's scratchy collar. The thought that the girls' softer shirts looked more comfortable than the boys' scratchy ones crossed her mind momentarily, but she brushed the thought aside as Rin said,

"So, do you want to do a powerpoint or a poster?" Gumi looked at Rin blankly. "Oh, come on, were you even listening at all?" Gumi shrugged, and Rin crossed her arms. "Please don't tell me you're going to be one of those lazy guys who leaves all the work to me and doesn't care about the group grade at all!" she sighed in frustration, and before Gumi could get a word in edgewise, she continued, "Anyway, tell me you at least read the topics we can cover for the presentation."

Gumi had, in fact, not even glanced at the paper- it still sat on her desk across the room, in the same spot it had been carelessly tossed by the person handing them out. Not wanting to seem like more of an idiot than she probably already did, she nodded and replied,

"I think we should do option number two." It was a shot in the dark that the options were even numbered, and she had no idea which project she was actually suggesting, but apparently she had said something right because Rin's face lit up slightly.

"Okay, that's the one I was thinking too- It's probably the hardest, though, but at least that way if we do it right we'll get a good grade and maybe the extra credit Kiyo-sensei mentioned, too." 'Kiyo-sensei' was the nickname the girls of the school had come up with for the young, sarcastic teacher.

Gumi nodded, but was inwardly thinking that any sort of extra-credit points would require more effort than she was willing to put in on some stupid science project- and that really, she was exactly the lazy kind of partner Rin had accused her of being, and had every intention of slacking off as much as she could get away with.

"Do you think we need to meet up outside school to work on this?" Gumi asked, hoping that the whole thing was small enough that none of her at-home time would be taken with it.

"Hmm… That would probably be a good idea, yeah. I'm pretty swamped with homework this week, so maybe on Saturday?" Gumi thought about her relatively empty calendar, and nodded after a moment.

"Sure, my house or yours?" Gumi wasn't sure which she preferred- on one hand, she'd prefer it being at her house so that she wouldn't have to go anywhere, but on the other hand she couldn't help thinking that someone so snotty and probably upper-class would be a bit disappointed by her more modest apartment.

"Alright, guys, we're done for today- go ahead and pack up, and we'll continue this tomorrow." Kiyoteru-sensei announced, and the chattering voices transitioned to the shuffling and zipping of students getting ready to head to their next classes.

"- number?" Gumi realized that she'd been spacing out yet again, "Are you deaf? I asked if I should give you my number." Gumi nodded, ripping out a piece of notebook paper and pushing it in Rin's direction. She took a pen out of her light yellow pencil case, neatly writing 'Rin K.' before her phone number.

"Um, do you want mine too?" Rin flipped to the 'contacts' page in her planner, and Gumi hastily scribbled her name and number into the neatly-arranged grid. By that point the room was mostly empty, with only a few stragglers and the teacher left in the room.

Gumi weaved easily through the now-empty desks and packed up her things quickly, cramming them into her backpack haphazardly so that she wouldn't risk being late to her next class again- she had an agreement with the school that she was allowed to sit out the swimming unit, but the teacher was still a stickler for her being on time.

The rest of the day went uneventfully, and Gumi was soon walking down the sidewalk to her apartment complex. The beige walls displayed their years of wear and tear with the multi-colored patchwork that was painted onto the buildings. Gumi made her way up the steps to the third floor where she lived. Soon the dull, chipped sign reading 'Apartment 302' was staring back at her. She pulled the lanyard with her house key and a small keychain on it out of her backpack, and with a click she unlocked the door and walked in.

"I'm home!" Gumi called into the empty apartment, her voice reverberating against the walls as she took off her shoes. She grabbed a bag of chips from the kitchen cupboard, walked to her room, and plopped herself onto her bed with a thud. She popped a few of the chips into her mouth, before pushing the bag to the side and loosening the green tie around her neck.

She glanced over to the alarm clock on her nightstand, and '3:50' stared back at her with bright, blocky numbers.

I can do homework later, she thought to herself before rolling onto her other side, facing the wall, and dozing off. Her dreams drifting through her head and flowing nonsensically into each other. During one of these fleeting illusions, Gumi heard the faint sound of a doorbell, ringing repeatedly.

The sound eventually dragged her back into consciousness, when she realized that the incessant ringing was in fact coming from her front door and not her rather bizarre half-dream which she vaguely recalled involved running frantically from a human-sized banana.

Nearly falling on her face, Gumi threw herself off of her bed and to the front door. Through the peephole, Gumi could make out a dark purple eye, clearly pressed close to the small circle as though the person on the other side were trying to peer in through it. Moments later, a loud voice came from the other side.

"Hey, Gumi! Are you in there?!" Ritsu Namine's almost-falsetto voice penetrated the apartment, muffled only slightly by the thin walls.

Rather than replying, Gumi threw the door open to reveal her childhood friend standing there. "Is Yukari with you?" she asked, rubbing the last bit of sleep out of her eyes as the full situation soaked in.

"Not yet, but she said she was stopping by after school too, so I guess she'll be here soon." Ritsu explained, stepping in without needing an invitation and kicking off his shoes.

The two soon found themselves in Gumi's room, sitting cross-legged on the floor and talking about various things, the conversation casual and never seeming awkward in the slightest.

The doorbell rang again after about half an hour, when Gumi had just finished making a snack that was a bit more decent than her previous half-crushed bag of chips. She quickly placed the platter onto her dresser and answered the door. It was Yukari, recognized in a split second due to her hair, which she had dyed a bright lavender

"Hey, Yukari" Gumi greeted with a big grin.

"Long time no see" Yukari replied, a similar stupid grin on her face. "Is Ritsu here already?"

"Yeah, he's in my room. Come on in, it's kind of chilly to be wearing something like that, isn't it?." Gumi pointed down at the revealing miniskirt that Yukari was wearing. Yukari's hands flew to her thighs and her face became a light pink.

"You don't have to point that out!" she squealed. "Just let me in already!" Gumi chuckled a little and then welcomed her guest into her home. Yukari rubbed the goosebumps from her arms as soon as she entered the apartment, and kicked off her brown school shoes where Ritsu and Gumi's were already sitting.

"Geez, if you knew it was going to be this cold, why would you wear such a short skirt and no jacket?" Gumi shook her head in a gently chiding, almost motherly way.

Yukari puffed out her cheeks, "It's not like I can just wear pants to school every day like you do, Gu~mi~ya." Yukari said in a singsong voice, making her way to Gumi's room. Plus, I actually like the uniform skirt." Gumi held in a laugh, which only caused Yukari's light pink cheeks to turn a brilliant shade of apple-red.

Ritsu greeted Yukari when she entered the room, and the three friends settled themselves on Gumi's bedroom floor. The space was small, but not so cramped that they couldn't all sit comfortably. They chatted and ate for a while, the conversation staying light until Yukari asked,

"So, Gumi, how've you been? I mean, has anyone at school found about about-" light purple eyes avoided darker green ones, the intent of her question clearly obvious to all three of them in the room.

"About me being a girl who prefers to dress as a guy? Nah- I'm not exactly a novice with this anymore, y'know." Gumi gestured to her clothes, which were still the uniform she'd worn to school. "I mean.. it's not like I have much to hide" Gumi pointed to her chest.

Yukari and Ritsu giggled in a childish way "That's true" Ritsu joked as he popped another cracker into his mouth. "Plus you've never been too . .. feminine, anyway."

"How 'bout you, Ritsu? Enjoying life in skirts?" Gumi teased, playfully poking Ritsu's side. Although Ritsu had been dressing as the other gender for longer, Gumi still found it entertaining to make fun of him for it sometimes- not in the kind of taunting, teasing way most people might, but lightly joking as a way of reminding him that they were in the same boat, in a way.

The three friends continued to giggle for a couple of hours, hardly noticing as the afternoon sun turned to a warm, golden evening glow. Ritsu and Yukari looked out the window as the light of a streetlight outside began to filter into the room.

"Oh shoot-!" Yukari sprang from her spot on the floor, a few crumbs falling to the ground. "Ritsu, we have to go- we're going to miss the last train back if we stay any longer!" Yukari grasped his hand and pulled him off the floor, and he reluctantly gave in.

Aww… Do we really have to go?" Ritsu whined as he dusted off his lacey skirt and freed his wrist from Yukari's iron grip. "I mean, we haven't been here that long, have we?" Ritsu scratched his head for a better excuse to stay.

"Ritsu" Yukari said in a motherly tone. "We can't just get stranded here again." She tapped her foot impatiently, more anxious than truly agitated.

"Um… Well, then we can sleep over with Gumi! Right, Gumi?" Ritsu looked over to his green-haired friend with an expectant look on his face. He was bouncing on the balls of his feet slightly in anticipation. "Come on! It could be like old times!" He exclaimed.

Gumi finally got up from the floor and sighed. "Sorry, Ritsu, you guys can't stay. I don't know about you guys, but tonight's a school night for me. Yukari's right… This time. And my mom's going to be home soon anyway, so you guys really should go."

"Okay, Okay. I didn't really think it would happen." Ritsu raised his hands in a mock surrender. Yukari and Ritsu were both reluctant to leave, no matter how much they needed to, and it showed as they lingered longer than was technically necessary. "Oh man, now it's really late" Yukari said as she glanced at her watch. "Now we're going to have to sprint to the station. This is your fault Ritsu" quickly pulled on her shoes and opened the front door to Gumi's apartment.

"My fault?" he asked in an overly exaggerated way, following suit and tugging on his shoes. They both bid Gumi goodbye, before racing off in the direction of the train station a few blocks away. They'd never missed the train before, but there had been more than a few close calls in the past.

Gumi had barely finished cleaning up from her friends' visit and settled at her desk with her homework when the familiar sound of a key in the lock sounded faintly through the quiet apartment. She continued working through a math problem without paying much attention to the perfectly normal sounds of her mother coming home from work, only looking up when a knock sounded at her door.

"You can come in," she called, and glanced towards her mother as she entered the room. She was wearing a blazer and pencil skirt, and with her short-cut emerald hair and youthful appearance, she looked more like she could be Gumi's much-older sister than her mother.

"Hey, hun- how was your day?" she asked, reaching behind her to unfasten a necklace from around her neck.

"It was alright- school was pretty much the same as always, but Ritsu and Yukari stopped by for a while- they just left, actually." In the grand scheme of things, Sonika was a pretty cool mom; she accepted that both her daughter and her daughter's childhood friend had decided to not dress normally and in fact embraced and even supported it. She unbuttoned the buttons on her blazer to reveal a neatly ironed blouse underneath.

"Oh really?" Sonika took a seat on her daughter's bed. "Did they tell you how school was going? she loosened the top of her shirt and sat back to lay down on the mattress.

"Yeah, they said it's fine. How was work, mom?" Gumi put down her pencil and turned in her swivel chair to face her mother.

"It was fine, just tiring I suppose." Sonika got up from the bed and pulled her blouse straight. "I need to change into some more comfortable clothes, then we can think about dinner." Gumi leaned over her chair to stretch her back, before turning back to her paper to get a few more minutes of work in while her mom changed clothes.

A few minutes later Gumi heard the sink in the bathroom across the hall turn on, and heard her mom call, "How does pizza sound? I don't really feel like cooking anything."

"Yeah, that sounds great!" Gumi replied without looking up. One of the convenient things about just the two of them in an apartment so small was that they could have conversations throughout the apartment easily, instead of needing to get up and find the other person.

Sonika shut off the faucet, then said, "Sausage as always?"

"Yes please!" Gumi got out of her seat and made her way to the bathroom, choking back a laugh at the sight of the half-washed off makeup on both her mother's face and the towel.

"What's with that face?" Sonika teasingly scolded Gumi, which only made it harder for the teen to hold in her giggles. Sonika looked in the mirror and began to imitate her daughter's expression until both of them began to laugh. With lipstick still half-covering the edges of her mouth, Sonika dialed up their favorite parlor and ordered a large pizza with extra Italian sausage like always.

While they awaited the arrival of their dinner, Sonika thoroughly erased the last traces of makeup from her face and smeared on lotion while Gumi finished a particularly difficult algebra problem.

Twenty minutes passed before the familiar sound of the doorbell rang through the small apartment. Gumi answered the door and paid the delivery boy before setting the hot box onto the kitchen table. "Pizza's here, mom!" Gumi called down the hall to her mother, who reemerged wearing comfortable-looking sweats. Gumi opened the cardboard box from which a huge cloud of delicious smelling steam escaped. Gumi began to drool as her home was filled the rich scent of sausage and melted cheese.

"Mmmm, smells good" Sonika walked into the kitchen and grabbed two paper plates from the cabinet, handing one to Gumi. The duo didn't waste any time digging into the still- piping-hot pizza.

After their meal, Sonika and Gumi cleaned up, washed up, and headed for bed. As Gumi laid in her bed, staring up at the ceiling, she tried to fall asleep- but tugging at the edges of her vision as she sank into sleep was the same, blonde-haired, blue-eyed face, lingering there until reality eventually turned to dreams.

***_Lizzy'-'Rocks Profile: u/3154308/Lizzy-rocks_**


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